Chairman Heirs Holding, Mr Tony Elumelu has called for a new approach to the development of the African continent, stressing that charity and aid have failed Africa and its leading entrepreneurs are now driving the continent's development agenda.
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He made this call last week at the African Development Bank's (AfDB) Annual Board of Governors meeting held in Marrakech, Morocco.
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The speech was followed by a panel discussion moderated by the BBC presenter Zeinab Badawi with Ronald Lauder, founder of the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation.
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Elumelu challenged the audience to consider a new approach to Africa's development – one that involved the private sector and was capable of kick-starting the economic ecosystem that underpins all sustainable development. He called this new approach Africapitalism, an economic philosophy which asserts that the private sector can solve Africa's most pressing challenges through long term investments that create economic prosperity and social wealth.